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Abstract
The study assessed the impact of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) rice project phase 1 on the socio-economic life of the rice farmers in Anambra and Ebonyi States of Nigeria. After more than five years of operation, the evaluation of the USAID project phase 1 in terms of its impact on rice production and socio-economic life of the rice farmers becomes pertinent. The population of the study included all rice farmers in Anambra and Ebonyi States that participated in the first phase of the project. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select a total of 80 project participant farmers (PPFs) which constituted the sample size for the study. Primary data were collected through validated structured interview schedule. T-test and Chi square were the analytical tools used at P = .05 significance level. The results of the study revealed that the project made significant impact on the socio-economic life of project farmers in the areas of hectarages of rice land cultivated (t= 8.33, P≤ .05), rice production output (t= 10.58, P ≤ .05), annual farm income (t= 11.2, P ≤ .05 ), knapsack sprayer (t= 8.32, P ≤ .05), motorcycle (t= 12.90, P ≤ .05) and mobile phones (t= 14.79, P ≤ .05). Other areas of significant changes were access to agro-inputs (χ2= 50.19, P ≤ .05), ease of marketing rice (χ2= 40.14, P ≤ .05), knowledge of rice production and processing techniques (χ2= 61.00, P ≤ .05), attitude toward rice production (χ2= 23.00, P ≤ .05), aspiration to invest more money into rice production (χ2= 12.60, P ≤ .05) and improved standard of living (χ2= 51.00, P ≤ .05). Increase in access to credit by the farmers; and the need for state governments or USAID in partnership with relevant manufacturing companies to provide various farmers’ groups with improved parboiling tanks and low capacity set of rice milling machines at subsidized rate were recommended.